VISITORS AND QUERIES
BY KAREN HANSEN
Ginny Baskerville from Kellogg, Iowa visited Walnut along with some of her family. She was able to find the cement marker for her sister, Sally Jo WAGNER, at the St. Patrick’s Cemetery here. It is a small marker that does not have an inscription. Sally Jo died at the age of 5 after suffering burns. I told Ginny about findagrave.com and how to access the Walnut newspapers online to see the obituary.
We received an email from the wife of Lloyd Longnecker, the great-grandson of Newberry and Elizabeth Cox LONGNECKER, who are buried at the Layton Township Cemetery. I told her how to access findagrave.com and the Walnut newspapers online. That helped them to find the information that they wanted.
Jim and Karen Hansen are continuing to research BURMEISTERS for Arnold Carbuhn from Waco, Texas. We found census records, births, deaths, marriages, news articles and obituaries, one coming from Florida.
Jim and Karen Hansen enjoyed helping Dave Osborne from Chicago, Illinois research his DREYER and SCHOENEWE ancestors and showing him the gravestones at the Layton Township Cemetery.
Julie Brandsness from Seattle, Washington and Bruce Brandsness from Minneapolis, Minnesota visited Walnut and wanted to share their historical Walnut photos. They are the great-great-grandchildren of William HOPPER, who was Postmaster in Walnut. We were able to take a photo of his gold-handled cane that had his name and from Walnut friends on it. We also copied Williams’s appointment as Postmaster, 2 portraits of William, 1 of his wife Elizabeth, a family photo of William, daughter Anna and her husband William Witherspoon and their daughter Helen, the marriage certificate of Anna and William, the Walnut Methodist Church, 2 photos of the snowfall in downtown Walnut on September 16, 1881 and a very early photo of Walnut. We also copied their photo of the HOPPER gravestone at the Layton Township Cemetery. Jim accompanied them to the gravesite to show them where William and his grandbaby were buried, but have no stones now.
We are doing research for Trace Frahm on his FRAHM ancestors who had a saloon in Walnut.
Sheila Smith Stepko will be visiting your library on Oct 14th or 15th and hopes to find out more about her ancestors. Christina Schmidt VOLLSTEDT is her great-great-great-aunt. She and her husband Heinrich F. T. “Henry” Vollstedt moved to the Walnut area about 1874. They were the parents of 7 children: Henry, Jerry Christian “JC”, Lena, Emma, Christina, Otto, and Anna. Heinrich died in 1900 and Christina died in 1912.
KH